Vedanta to expand steel production at ESL Steel Ltd to 3 million tonnes
Vedanta Ltd, owned by billionaire Anil Agarwal, said Friday it will invest $1.5 billion in its oil and gas, zinc and steel businesses.
Its board meeting on Friday approved a $687 million capital expenditure to drill new wells at Cairn Oil & Gas's oil and gas division, Vedanta said in a stock exchange statement.
The Board of Directors also approved a US$466 million Phase 2 expansion of the Gamsberg zinc project in South Africa and another US$348 million to expand ESL Steel Ltd's 3 million tonne steel production.
“The $348 million steel expansion project includes additional coke ovens, a pellet plant, an oxygen plant and other ancillary equipment, as well as infrastructure upgrades, including a railway line to the parent plant,” it says. in the message. “This project also includes a new ductile iron pipe plant with a capacity of 180,000 tons.”
This project, along with debottlenecking, will increase the facility's capacity to 3 million tonnes per year with "the lowest quartile cost and premium product portfolio," Vedanta said.